Minalungao National Park has been an instant nature-celebrity in social media recently. The turquoise-green water of Penaranda river walled by a 16 meter tall limestone circulating around the net has become famous. No wonder a lot of people are wanting to see this place. Let me share to you how to go to Minalungao National Park and other frequently asked questions.
HOW TO GET THERE (via Public Transpo)
The park is in Nueva Ecija, 2-3 hours away from Manila. To avoid heavy traffic build up, it is better to leave early in the morning.
From Cubao/Pasay, take a 5 Star or ES Transport Bus bound to Gapan/Cabanatuan. Alight at Gapan Nueva Ecija. Fare is P150 – P200, Travel time is around 2-3 hours.
From Gapan, ride a jeepney going to General Tinio (not sure about the fare, maybe around 30-50 pesos, one way). Then from General Tinio take a tricycle going to Minalungao National Park. Fare is P50 – P150/pax. Travel time is around 45 minutes to an hour.
If you want to have a hassle free trip, you can rent a tricycle from Gapan which will take you directly to Minalungao. Fare is P500 – P700 (depends on how good is your bidding “tawad” power is). Travel time is around 1-1.5 hours and the tricycle will be waiting for you on your way back to Gapan.
PARK RATES AND FEES
Entrance
Fee
P50/pax
Tricycle/Car
Entrance Fee
P30
Comfort/Shower
Rooms
P10/use
Cottage
P300
Bamboo Raft
P300 – P800
TIPS
Bring your own food and water.
Good for a day trip or side trip.
Not advisable to visit during rainy season as the road gets muddy and the water level is unpredictable and the current is strong.
Visit the park during weekdays to avoid heavy crowd.
SUMMARY OF EXPENSES (divided into 3 persons)
Bus
Fare (Back and Forth)
P300
Tricycle Fare
(two way)
P700 ( P233
each)
Breakfast
P120
Cottage
P300 ( P100
each)
Comfort/Shower
Room
P150 ( P50
each)
Guide
(optional)
P150 ( P50
each)
Total
P823
Please note that fares and rates may change without prior notice. Fares and rates are as of April 2016.
The water doesn’t look exactly like this. I don’t know what’s wrong with my phone, but this is the only picture that I have covering the whole river
“Leave nothing but footprints; Take nothing but pictures; Kill nothing but time”
The jade-like water sandwiched by a 16 meter tall limestone and rock formations is one of the famous scenic view in Minalungao National Park. Located in the Municipality of General Tinio (known as Papaya for the locals) Nueva Ecija, this 2,018 hectares park is a national treasure and said to be as one of the hardly remaining natural environments in the Philippines. This was declared as a National Park and protected area on 1967 by Republic Act No. 5100.
This is what the water really looks like
It was one boring day while I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I saw the picture of Peñaranda River which immediately caught my attention. I then messaged my friends and we all agreed to visit Minalungao after our Hong Kong trip. We chose to go there on a weekday to avoid the crowd but there were already quite a lot of people. I can’t imagine how does the park look like on a weekend, might be as crowded as EDSA, aw! So I suggest that you plan your visit on a weekday if you want to enjoy and experience serenity (hopefully) with mother nature.
We wanted to be there as early as possible and to avoid heavy traffic so we depart from Cubao on a 5-star Bus bound for Gapan/Cabanatuan at around 5:00 AM. We arrived in Gapan at around 8:00 AM. Our plan was to take a jeep going to General Tinio and tricycle to Minalungao or rent a tricycle from Gapan to Minalungao, whichever comes first. Right after we stepped off the bus a tricycle driver offered to take us directly to Minalungao for 400 pesos. It was quite expensive so we declined, then he lowered it to 350. We thought that it was for a two-way trip so we agreed. We made a mistake when we didn’t ask if it’s for a two-way or one-way trip and yes! it was 350 one-way which obviously makes it 700 pesos for a two-way ride.
It was all our first time going to this part of Nueva Ecija and we were quite excited. Adventure is what we are looking for but little did we know that a very unexpected adventure awaits us on our way back home, I’ll tell you more about it later.
We reached the park at around 10:00 AM. It’s quite far and some roads are steep and bumpy and some parts are under construction. Going to the park on a rainy season is not a good idea as the road gets surely muddy and water current in the river might be too strong so it’s kinda dangerous for you to swim.
There were already a lot of people when we came. The park has a parking area, one eatery, comfort and shower rooms with a P10 fee per use. Bamboo rafts are also available for rent if you want to have picnic in the middle of the river (this one’s good for a group of friends or family) and the rental fee ranges from P300 to P800.
The dry part of the river which serves as a parking area
Bamboo rafts available for renting. Life jackets are also provided (i think if you only request for it)
A kid named Christopher offered to guide us so as first-timers, we all agreed to have him as our tour guide. He brought us to different picture-perfect spots. He also led us to the cave which is not really an adventure-like. The guides don’t have a specific rate, so we gave him P150.
The steel hanging bridge. The other end of the bridge leads to what they call “1000 Steps”. If you are up for hiking and has a reliable knee, you can climb up the hill with 1000 steps. There’s a big cross on top of the hill and you can make a wish.
Bamboo bridge made for an easy passage
Inside the cave which is sadly ruined and vandalized.
So after all the photo ops and sight seeing….it’s swimming time! yey! We rented a cottage just right beside the river, we paid P300. The scorching heat of the sun made us more excited and eager to plunge in the water. Now this is where first of the unexpected adventure happened. My partner put his 9-day old iPhone 6s+ in a zip-lock bag and brought it with him in the water. He was not comfortable leaving it in the cottage unattended due to a lot of people are also occupying the cottage just right beside us. After around 30 minutes of enjoying in the water he noticed that his 9-day old phone was also swimming inside the zip-lock bag! The water came inside the zip-lock bag! We all don’t know how because it was zipped twice plus another lock outside, there were no holes either. We tried to revive the phone put it into a plastic of dry uncooked rice and after a couple of hours it still won’t turn on :(. Good thing the phone is insured so we’re just now waiting for a replacement.
Keep swimming! keep swimming!
It was around 3:00 PM when we head back home. This is where the second unexpected adventure took place. While on the road, a heavy rain suddenly poured and yet the tricycle driver didn’t pull over so we can take cover or maybe he was thinking that the rain would stop so we ended up soaking wet! Third unexpected adventure: in the middle of nowhere with zero visibility the tricycle ran out of gas. We were on the road, under a heavy rain soaking wet and shivering. I was scared because the lightning could hit us any moment on the road, good thing the driver pushed the tricycle and we hid under a tree. He managed to get a gasoline by the help of his fellow tricycle driver but this time the engine won’t start. No matter how hard he tried it just wont turn on. We waited for an hour until a help came. 🙁 We had no choice but to endure the cold in the bus. It was a 2 hour trip back to Manila and we were all soaking wet inside an air-conditioned bus! But nevertheless we were still thankful that we were able to go home safely (except for the iphone).
One last pahabol picture! ^_^
So there you have it! That’s the story behind the unexpected Minalungao adventure. Overall, our Minalungao National Park trip was indeed fun and full of adventures, very unforgettable.
If you’re visiting Hong Kong then you just might as well visit Disneyland or it is probably one of the main reason why you’re in (want to go to) Hong Kong, or if you are reading this then you might have already read my magical Disneyland experience (if you haven’t read it yet click here).
In this post, I will be sharing the directions on how to get to Hong Kong Disneyland and other frequently asked questions.
HOW TO GET TO DISNEY LAND FROM TSIM SHA TSUI
Many budget friendly hotels are located in Tsim Sha Tsui area. In our case, MTR was just few walks away from our hotel so it was very convenient for us. We allotted our whole second day for Disneyland only so we woke up early went there just few minutes right after they open and stayed up until the fireworks display. Here’s the directions on how to get to Disneyland from Tsim Sha Tsui:
From the MTR Tsim Sha Tsui station take the train bound to Tsue Wan (red line).
Alight at Lai King station and transfer to a different train bound to Tung Chung (orange line).
Alight at Sunny Bay station and transfer to Disney Resort line (pink line).
Disney Resort Train has only one stop so when it stops get out of the train and after few walks, taadaaah! you’re in Disney Land!
The fare is HK$19 – oneway (deducted from the Octopus card)
WHAT TIME DOES THE PARK OPEN
The park opens everyday from 10:00 AM to 8:45 PM. Please take note that the schedule may change anytime so I suggest that you check the park’s schedule on their official website (click here) first before going or planning your trip. Also, some attractions may open late or close early so if you want to visit them all make sure to check the schedules online.
HOW MUCH DOES THE TICKET COST AND WHERE TO BUY
There are two types of tickets and you can purchase depending on your choice/need. If you’re planning to explore the park in just a day, you can purchase a 1-Day Ticket:Standard Day or if you need two days to explore this magical kingdom you can purchase a 2-Day Ticket.
1-Day Ticket:Standard Day Cost
HK$539 : General Admission (Ages 12-64)
HK$385 : Child (Ages 3-11)
HK$100 : Senior (Ages 65 above)
For online purchase: Standard Day Tickets are valid for one visit during a 6-month validity period from the purchase date. Standard Day Tickets are valid on all dates during the validity period.
2-Day Ticket Cost
HK$739 : General Admission (Ages 12-64)
HK$525 : Child (Ages 3-11)
HK$170 : Senior (Ages 65 above)
For online purchase: 2-Day Tickets are valid for visit on any 2 days within a 7-day period. First visit must be on or before the last day of the validity period printed on the back of the ticket. Ticket Tag or Photo ID is required for Park admission.
Where to Buy Tickets
There are two ways to purchase a ticket, first is you can purchase from the ticket booths located at the park second is through online (credit card payment). Ticket prices are the same but the only advantage of purchasing online is that you don’t have to wait on the line, just go directly to the ticket booth and claim your actual Park ticket. Guests must be the authorized holder of the credit card used in the Website purchase. Guests need to present the credit card used in the Website purchase together with the confirmation number issued for the Website purchase to redeem the purchased tickets. Upon HKITP’s request, Guests need to present personal identification documents to verify their identities as the authorized holder of the credit card used in the Website purchase.
IS IT ALLOWED TO BRING FOOD INSIDE THE PARK?
Yes, but it depends on the kind of food that you’ll bring. Rice meals and meats are not allowed inside the park. You have to pass two security inspections and the guards are thoroughly inspecting the bags even up to the smallest pockets so don’t even try to sneak something not allowed. However, water, chips and bread are allowed. There are many restaurants & refreshments and food kiosk inside the park but the food are very expensive so make sure to eat a lot before going to the park and bring a bottle of water and something to fill your stomach (like bread and/or chips) but if you have money to blow then you can eat anything you want there by all means :).
IS THERE A MONEY CHANGER AND CHARGING STATION INSIDE THE PARK?
Yes there is a money changer and charging station. Just go to the City Hall located at the Main Street USA. I don’t have the information about the exchange rate but maybe it’s a little bit higher. If your phone ran out of battery you can charge it there for free. Just present a valid ID and bring your own charger with you. Don’t worry about about the three prong adapter, they have lot’s of those :). You can leave your phone there while charging and just present your ID when claiming it.
WHAT TIME IS THE DISNEY PARADE AND FIREWORKS DISPLAY
As far as I know there are two sets of parade, one in the afternoon at 3:00 PM the Flights of Fantasy Parade and the second one is at 7:30 PM Disney Paint the Night Parade (which I liked most and one of the highlights of my Disney experience).
Fireworks display is at the closing part which is 8:45 PM. It is a 10-15 minute display at the Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Make sure to be there in front of the castle at least 30 minutes or more before the fireworks display starts as the area easily gets crowded. It’s up for you to find a very good viewing (for video/picture) spot.
NOTE: The time or type of parade may change depending on the weather and Disney Management. Like in our case, it was kinda rainy when we went there so for the 3:00 PM parade instead of Flights of Fantasy it was replaced by Mickey’s Rainy Day Parade but we were still able to see different Disney characters.
So there you go folks! So far these are the things that I think might be helpful for you as I also had these questions in my mind before.
If you have further inquiries or suggestions please feel free to write it down in the comment area and I will try to respond the soonest time possible as soon as I read it.
It’s as if it was only yesterday when I went to the magical world of Disneyland. This magical kingdom is probably every kids and kid-at-heart’s dream. When I was a kid I used to watch different Disney shows (even up until now, though not as often as before) and never have I imagined that it would come to a point that I’ll meet almost all Disney characters in person.
Disneyland is our only priority during our Hong Kong trip, haha. So we decided to spend our second day exploring the majestic world of Disney. We woke up early ate our breakfast and prepared ourselves. We wanted to be there when the park opens up until they close (very determined souls, lol).
We left the hotel around 9:30 AM and we were shocked by the cold weather, but that doesn’t stopped us from our goal. Hong Kong itself is very tourist friendly and they have a very expandable mode of transportation so it was kind of easy for us to navigate to our destination.
It was around 10:30 AM when we reached Disneyland and I couldn’t hide my joy and excitement. I was overwhelmed and never thought that right there and then I was in Disneyland. haha (sorry if masyadong madrama). There were a lot of people of course as expected.
The ticket booths are around 5-minute walk away from the main entrance. Before entering in the ticket booths are, we passed through the first security check in which our bags were thoroughly inspected up to the last single pocket. We bought a 1-Day Ticket which cost HK$539 each then went through the last security check and viola! a garden with a huge Mickey Mouse smiling face greeted us.
We grabbed a map from the shelves located just as before entering the Main Street USA. I suggest you get a copy of this map as this will be very useful in navigating around Disneyland.The park has 7 lands to explore, Main Street USA, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Toy Story Land, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch and Adventureland and yes! we were able to visit and experienced all 7 magical lands.
Each land has it’s own unique attractions. The queue for the rides are jam-packed so we were only able to experience few of them. As much as I really want to try all the rides but we don’t want to consume all day lining up waiting on the queue. Also, taking a picture with all the Disney characters in each land is kind of impossible because I think they don’t have a specific time when they’ll come out and when they do, it’s only for few minutes then they’ll leave again (yeah, they’re hiding somewhere and just coming out whenever they want for picture taking, lol and the queue is very long). Luckily we were able to took a picture with the three characters (for one whole day we only took a picture with three of them), Buzz lightyear, Baymax and of course Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
Let me share the story behind this picture with Mickey and Minnie. Around 11:00 AM we saw a very long queue of people patiently standing and waiting on the line, when we checked we saw Mickey and Minnie so we both rushed and went on the line but the Disney staff told us that the meet and greet is already done and that we have to wait for 3:00 PM if we want to have a pic with them then he told us to be there as early as 1:00 PM. We were quite sad and disappointed and somehow lost hope to have a pic with Mickey and Minnie. We already set an expectation to ourselves that we will be leaving Disneyland without a pic with them. But while we are resting and waiting for the 3:00 PM parade we noticed that there are already few people lining up though we’re not seeing any Disney character yet so we just followed the crowd and stand on the line only to find out that it was another meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie. Haha So there it is, luckily I was able to take a pic with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Yey!
Second picture out of luck is with Baymax. While we are busy taking selfie with Mickey and Minnie we saw Baymax and the queue wasn’t that long so right after taking a picture with Mickey and Minnie Mouse we ran to Baymax’s picture taking area. Haha
This picture with Buzz lightyear is also out of luck. Haha Just right after we finished eating our lunch in a food court at Tomorrowland we saw Buzz lightyear walking towards the picture taking area so we rushed and stand on the line. Wew! Another lucky picture. Haha. So all these pictures with the three Disney characters are all out of luck.
Here are the different attractions in each lands:
Main Street USA
Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad – Main Street Station
Main Street Vehicles
Animation Academy
Art of Animation
Tomorrow Land
Space Mountain
Stitch Encounter (a real-like theater interaction with stitch which I was put on the spotlight because Stitch said that I am a space prisoner. lol Out of all people inside the theater I was the one that he spotted.)
Orbitron
UFO Zone
Autopia
The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Fantasy Land
Sleeping Beauty Castle
Mickey’s PhilhasMagic
Fairy Tale Forest
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Cinderalla Carousel
Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad – Fantasy Land Station
Fantasy Gardens
Mad Hatter Tea Cups
It’s a small world
Mickey and the Wondrous Book
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Snow White Grotto
Toy Story Land
Toy Soldier Parachute Drop
Slinky Dog Spin
RC Racer
Barrel of Fun
Mystic Point
Mystic Manor
Garden of Wonders
Grizzly Gulch
Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars
Geyser Gulch
Adventureland
Festival of the Lion King
Rafts to Tarzan’s Tree House
Tarzan’s Treehouse
Jungle River Cruise
Liki Tikis
All seven lands has different Restaurants & Refreshments and shops.
A 3-D theater inside Mickey’s PhilharMagic
The Disney characters parade is scheduled at 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM. The Disney Paint the Night Parade at 7:00 PM is the one i liked most. There’s also a charging station if your phone ran out of battery. Just go to the City Hall located at The Main Street USA, don’t forget to bring your own charger and a valid ID and the staff will charge your phone for free. You can even leave your phone there while charging and continue roaming around the park. If you’re going to claim your phone and charger just present a valid ID.
Cute Tinkerbell! as if she’s really flying
Mickey Mouse
Beautiful Ariel of Little Mermaid
Characters from the movie Monster
Gorgeous Bell of Beauty and the Beast
One of the character from the Disney movie Cars
Sheriff Woody from Toy Story
One of the cool and amazing costumes of the dancers on the parade
The last part and highlight of our Disneyland adventure was the fireworks display. We were already dead tired for roaming around the park the whole day but we can’t leave without witnessing the famous Disney Fireworks display. Around 8:00 PM we went in the open area in front of Cinderella’s Castle and looked for a spot to sit and rest while waiting for the clock to strike at 8:45 PM (this is the time that the fireworks display starts). There were already a lot of people sitting and waiting so if you want to have a perfect viewing (video/picture) spot, be sure to be there at least an hour before the fireworks display as that area of the park easily gets crowded.
The show started at exactly 8:45 PM and I was again amazed and overwhelmed :). The castle looked stunningly beautiful while it was being illuminated by the sparkling lights (it was my first time seeing a real Disney Castle and fireworks so pardon me if I’m kind of madrama, haha dati sa mga intro ng Disney Movies ko lang to nakikita black and white pa).
It was indeed a magical and unforgettable day. My first time Disney experience. I wonder how does the other five Disney’s look like. Can’t wait to visit em all.
